Best Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA For Your Website will be discussed in this article. Spam bots are one of the most annoying pitfalls for those who have a website, and CAPTCHA services can help fight them. Spam bots are one of the most annoying pitfalls for those who have a website, and CAPTCHA services can help fight them.
Dealing With Spammers on the Internet
There are various reasons one decides to build a website: it may be to start a new blog, highlight personal skills, run an e-commerce business, or provide information about the services offered by a company. Whatever the reason for creating a site, one of the most common problems we face is that of spammers.
Spammers regularly hit websites using automatic bots trained to perform several malicious tasks, for example:
- Mass-posting comments on blog posts;
- Mass-filling online contact forms;
- Creating multiple accounts on websites providing a registration form.
Spam bots usually post malicious links that may lead to websites featuring malware or questionable content.
Fighting Spam With CAPTCHA Services
One of the most common ways to protect a website against spammers is to use CAPTCHA (Completely Mechanical Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) services. These validation systems require users to copy the characters shown in an image in a text box to check that the action is performed by a human and not by a bot. Other alternatives may require the user to:
- Listen to audio and type what they hear,
- Perform simple mathematical calculations,
- Complete simple puzzles, or
- Click on a checkbox.
The last validation system is the most common. It is a way to check if a user is real in a few seconds, thanks to several algorithms that analyze their behavior. In case of uncertainties, the service will provide the user with a second validation option.
The validation system through checkbox is an innovative way to fight spam with a user-friendly solution and is provided by reCAPTCHA, the Google CAPTCHA service.
reCAPTCHA is one of the best validation services you can choose to protect your website against spammers. Still, there are also some alternatives provided by other IT companies. You may consider them, for example, if you already use other services from these companies and want to consolidate them all into one account or simply try something new to protect your website.
Top 5 Best Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA For Your Website
In this article, you can know about Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA here are the details below;
1. CloudFlare Turnstile
CloudFlare is one of the best-known CDNs on the web, providing anti-DDOS protection and other services that empower websites worldwide. It is also the company behind 1.1.1.1, one of the fastest DNS servers in the world. This is another Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA. Also check Autodesk Maya Alternatives
Over the years, CloudFlare has expanded its services, becoming recognized among web admins not only as a CDN but as a fully-functional set of services to build a website. Two are, in particular, the most exciting features added to CloudFlare over the years:
- A domain registration service, and
- CloudFlare Turnstile.
Turnstile is the CloudFlare alternative to other CAPTCHA services. Its peculiarity is to behave similarly to Google reCAPTCHA, but instead of asking the user to click on a checkbox, it automatically checks the user activity with no interaction required. If the validation succeeds, the “Success!” message appears. This is another Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA.
Below are the steps to enable CloudFlare Turnstile on a website:
- Sign up for a new CloudFlare account and set up a new property (unless you are already using CloudFlare services);
- Login to the CloudFlare dashboard;
- In the main control panel, click on “Turnstile”;
- Create a new CAPTCHA;
- Configure the new CAPTCHA with your existing website. If you use WordPress, you can enable TurnStile with a few clicks by using specific plugins, like All-In-One Security or Simple CloudFlare Turnstile.
2. AWS WAF
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of leading cloud computing services in the world, especially in Western countries. At the same time, Alibaba Cloud is the leader in China and other Asian countries. People who host their websites on AWS may find it comfortable to use WAF, which is not only a CAPTCHA service but a fully functional web application firewall. Also check SMTP2GO Alternatives
Compared to reCAPTCHA and Turnstile, WAF requires advanced configuration due to being a complete firewall, so this service is more suitable for techy people who want to fine-grain any aspect of the CAPTCHA service. This is another Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA.
Despite the advanced configuration required by WAF, one of its easiest aspects lies in the fact that the service does not require any code to be added to your applications, as it is already implemented as a layer that AWS automatically puts between your website and the user. In fact, AWS works with CloudFront, the Amazon CDN, which you can then use with a website physically hosted on an AWS virtual machine or a property hosted elsewhere.
Below are the steps to configure a new WAF instance on AWS:
- Login to Amazon Web Services;
- Search for “WAF” in the top tracking bar;
- Select “WAF & Shield,” then proceed to create the new instance;
- Configure the rule groups that determine how WAF will protect your website. You may choose, for example, to use WAF to protect your login pages or prevent bots from wasting your AWS resources;
- Deploy your new WAF instance and configure it according to your needs. You may also choose to look for security solutions on the AWS Marketplace that will easily integrate with WAF.
3. Alibaba Cloud Web Application Firewall
Being Alibaba Cloud one of the most popular alternatives to AWS, and the leading cloud service in China, many of its features are similar to those provided by AWS. One of them is the Web Application Firewall, which works like the Amazon counterpart: it provides an additional safety layer that, according to set rules, will allow or deny user requests, eventually by also prompting a CAPTCHA as an extra security measure. This is another Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA.
Below are the steps to enable the service:
- Open the Alibaba Cloud dashboard;
- Search for “Web Application Firewall” and choose between the subscription and the pay-as-you-go model;
- Choose a region between “Outside Chinese Mainland” and “Chinese Mainland,” depending on where your website is hosted;
- Proceed with purchasing the service;
- Access the WAF dashboard and proceed with setting up the security rules.
Like the AWS service, the Alibaba Cloud web application firewall does not limit itself to providing a piece of code to be added to a login page: it is a complete security solution that analyzes the traffic on your website and that can be triggered to protect your web properties against several kinds of attacks, in addition, to limit the risk of having your Alibaba Cloud resources wasted by bots.
4. Akismet
Akismet is not a CAPTCHA solution; it is still an alternative to stop spammers, specifically targeted to people subscribing to a WordPress.com paid plan, or using a free WordPress.org CMS and paying for the service, or for the Jetpack bundle. This is another Alternatives To ReCAPTCHA.
Unlike CAPTCHAs, Akismet works silently by automatically blocking spam comments based on the information the service has gathered over the years and on algorithms that automatically detect potential spammers and learn from their errors.
5. hCaptcha
hCaptcha is one of the most popular alternatives to reCAPTCHA. Unlike other solutions, it is not entirely free, but depending on the features you need, you may subscribe to a paid plan to use it. In most cases, if you need a simple and privacy-first CAPTCHA for an essential website, the free plan is more than enough. At the same time, the paid solutions include fine-graining tweaking, SLAs, and other features required by large corporations and users who need advanced protection for their websites.
